THE finals of the Machfab Open Pairs Tournament were played on Saturday and were won by the local pairing of the two Tixall players, Matthew Gilmore and Anthony Thompson.

They came through a series of tense, close games before clinching the final in yet another tight game, 21-18, against John Taylor and Alan Manuel from Warrington.

In the quarter final they had beaten Gary Ellis and his partner Paul Heap 21-18 before winning by the same score against the very strong pairing of Terry Glover and Dave Carter in the semi-final.

Results:

Semi-finals: J Taylor and A Manuel 21, M Tunstall and Alan Hill 15; M Gilmore and A Thompson 21, T Glover and D Carter 18. Final: Gilmore and Thompson 21, Taylor and Manuel 18.

At the Winter Flyers Tournament, it has not been unusual for a player to come through and win the final on his first appearance of the season, and this happened yet again when Gladstone's Ray Lynch came from behind to clinch the final against the "Welsh Wizard" Paul Roberts.

On another warm and sunny day in Birkenhead Park, Lynch had two fairly comfortable wins in the quarters and semis; firstly against another player based in Wales, Abergele's Roger Griffiths and then New Brighton Queens Royal's Eddie Dutton, while Roberts came through against Tommy Walker of Hoylake Central and then another player making his first appearance of the season, your correspondent West Kirby's Bill Atkinson.

Though the final was always close, Roberts was in the lead throughout and seemed to have it sewn up when he led 20-17 but Lynch had other ideas and he won through by the smallest of margins.

Results: Quarter-finals: P Roberts 21, T Walker 13; W Atkinson 21, N Hughes 16; E Dutton 21, C Barton 14; R Lynch 21, R Griffiths 14.

Semi-finals: Roberts 21, Atkinson 18; Lynch 21, Dutton 14. Final: Lynch 21, Roberts 20.

The Wallasey Association's Parks Tournament was left unfinished earlier in the season.

Last Wednesday, the four semi-finalists who had qualified to represent Wallasey came back together to complete the tournament under the floodlights at Hoylake Central.

The winner after some great bowling was West Kirby Victoria's Dave Gilmore who beat his team mate Jamie Fitzpatrick in a surprisingly one-sided final.

This was the fifth time that Dave Gilmore has lifted this trophy and he is now level with his son Matthew who has also won the title five times.

Results: Semi-finals: D Gilmore (West Kirby Victoria) 21, C Barton (New Brighton Quarry Vikings) 17; J Fitzpatrick (West Kirby Victoria) 21, M Gilmore (West Kirby Victoria) 19. Final: D. Gilmore 21, Fitzpatrick 09.